Oust Soviet Educator for Prejudice

November 13, 1934

Moscow (Nov. 12)

Ivan Kolonitchenko, anti-Semitic administrator of the department of education in the Ukrainian district of Konotop was today expelled from the Communist Party and was barred from holding any government position in educational institutions.

Kolonitchenko was convicted of having displayed violent antagonism to the Jews and of having hampered the development of Yiddish schools by cutting down instruction in Yiddish. He was also charged with having continuously propagandized for the Russification of the Yiddish schools in the district under his control.

In the decree, the government justified the Jewish complainants who protested against the anti-Semitic activities of the school head. It was made clear that the Soviet government was determined to encourage to the limit the self-development of all peoples in Soviet territory and that the old Czarist policy of forcible Russification of the population was against Soviet principle.

Other Yiddish language schools in the Ukraine have suffered from the zeal of anti-Semitic directors. In Odessa, a school head ordered Yiddish schools to teach certain subjects in Russian only and cut down the number of hours instruction in Yiddish in other subjects. A protest to the central authorities resulted in a complete revocation of this policy and the immediate dismissal of the official responsible.

Anti-Semitism in Russia, particularly in the Ukraine where the vast majority of Jews live, has been severely suppressed by the authorities. Cases involving anti-Semitism have been strictly handled by the courts and heavy sentences imposed on those convicted of offenses against the Jews.